I’m off on my second visit to Madagascar, this time as a volunteer researcher at Centre ValBio at Ranamafana National Park.
Madagascar is an enchanting place – particularly of you have a naturalist’s bent. The wildlife is amazingly diverse. It exhibits both a high species richness and a high rate of endemic species.
The island is about the size of California and represents 0.4% of the world’s land area. But it punches well above its weigh in biodiversity, representing 4% of that measure. It supports over 366 species of amphibian and 440 species of reptiles. It is the only place in the world to find lemurs (110 species current count). Here’s why it is so diverse.
Madagascar separated from the African land mass 125 million years ago, and then India separated from Madagascar 90 million years ago. The asteroid that killed the dinosaurs exploded earth at 65 million years ago, wiped out 75% of life on earth and gave Madagascar a near clean slate.
Animals re-populated the island by rafting on vegetation from Africa and expanded to fill the wide array of evolutionary niches on the island – spiny desert, rain forests, dry forests, mountains, and valleys.
I’ll be assisting a number of researchers this month and will post as I can on what we’re coming across to provide a view on this fascinating island. Cheers.